956 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 495. 



ran around the table and stood with it beside 

 my mother, looking up into her face and 

 wagging- his tail. I fear that some of our 

 popular writers on animals would at once at- 

 tribute a rather remarkable reasoning power 

 to this dog, saying that he thought my mother 

 would like to see the card, and so selecting it 

 from the others in the basket took it to her 

 and expected to be rewarded for his thought- 

 fulness. But there is a much more reasonable 

 explanation. He is still very playful, and as 

 he jumped from the chair and ran about the 

 room the card projecting above the edge of the 

 basket caught his eye, and the play instinct 

 prompted him to seize it. The fact that he 

 did this just after my sister had spoken of the 

 card was a mere coincidence. His running 

 to my mother with the card is easily explained. 

 Several months ago, while he was still a puppy, 

 in fact, he frequently pulled papers from this 

 same basket and was punished for doing so, 

 until he entirely gave up the habit. As soon 

 as he had taken the card from the basket, the 

 memory of former punishments for similar 

 acts doubtless recurred to him. Now my 

 mother is intensely sympathetic, and when- 

 ever he is punished or likely to be punished he 

 invariably runs to her, knowing that he will 

 be petted and may even get a lump of sugar; 

 if the recollection of punishment came to him, 

 he would naturally follow his habit and run to 

 her. 



It was about a week after this that my sister 

 sat in the same dining room later in the even- 

 ing reading a book, while the dog, who is as 

 restless as dogs of that variety usually are, 

 was running about looking for something to 

 play with. At last my sister said, without 

 looking up from her book and in an ordinary 

 tone •: ' Teddy, if you go down cellar and bring 

 up a stick of wood, I'll play with you.' The 

 dog stood beside her as she spoke and im- 

 mediately darted out into the kitchen, down 

 the stairs into the cellar and soon reappeared 

 beside my sister with a stick of wood. This 

 was not a trick that he had been taught. He 

 has several times during the past winter car- 

 ried sticks of wood from the cellar to the 

 kitchen, and at times has been praised with 

 such words as : ' Nice dog to bring up wood 



from the cellar.' But this carrying the wood 

 has always been done voluntarily. Different 

 members of the household when in the cellar 

 have told him to carry up sticks, and he has 

 never done so; sometimes a stick has been 

 put in his mouth in the cellar, but after taking 

 it as far as the stairs he would drop it and" 

 run up alone. He has been told a few times 

 to go to the cellar and bring up a stick, but 

 no attempt has been made to teach him to do 

 so, and he has never done it except in the 

 instance noted above. Since the evening in 

 question the same remark has been made to 

 him several times, and he has not responded 

 to it in any way. The explanation would 

 seem to be that he had learned to associate the 

 words ' cellar ' and ' stick ' with the objects 

 themselves and probably the word ' play ' with 

 the corresponding activity, for my sister plays 

 with him a great deal and on such occasions 

 frequently repeats the word ' play,' as ' Now 

 let us play ' or ' Come, play with your ball.' 

 At the time in question the play instinct acted 

 as a strong stimulus, probably a ' felt-need ' 

 from within, such as I have referred to in my 

 text-book, and hence the special response. The 

 whole act, then, involves no factors more 

 complicated than memory and the association 

 of names with objects, a faculty which dogs 

 possess in considerable degree. 



This same terrier, for example, associates 

 the word ' ball ' with the corresponding object 

 with which he plays. If some one is in the 

 pantry and you say to him, ' Go to the pantry 

 and they will give you a piece of dog-biscuit,' 

 he invariably goes for it, as he has doubtless 

 learned to associate the words ' biscuit ' and' 

 'pantry' with the objects themselves. In the 

 same way if you say to him, ' The grocer is 

 coming into the kitchen to take orders; you 

 must stay here in the dining room,' he in- 

 variably does so, although he is always very 

 eager to see and jump upon any person who 

 enters the house. The simple words, ' Grocer ! 

 stay here ! ' will have the same effect in keep- 

 ing him out of the kitchen. He has likewise 

 learned to associate the words, ' He is com- 

 ing,' with the approach of any one to the 

 house. I generally go home only on Sundays 

 and at variable hours, and if the house is 



